Doctorate Announcements
by Evangeline's Angel
Summary: The Jeffersonian team learn of Willow's Doctorates, how will they react to the secret she kept for months?
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hey, here's the first chapter of a two shot to keep you satisfied before I get to work on the next big story in the series. So this is set after Spas or Bones, and A Change in the Line Up, I would suggest that you read those first, or this won't make any sense to you at all. Anyway, carry on!**

**Doctorate Announcements**

The easiest way to get Willow to tell you the truth about something is to ask either when she first wakes up in the morning, right before she goes to sleep at night, or when she is focused on something else. When focused, Willow loses her mental filter, and will tell you the absolute truth, at least, the absolute truth as she knows it. This is how, of course, the Jeffersonian team came to know of Willow's doctorates.

Four months after she began working with the team, Willow was working diligently on the skeletons kept in Limbo at the Jeffersonian. Willow felt that they all needed a face and a name, they needed their humanity back, so every free moment she had while at work was spent with one skeleton or another in Limbo. It was a Tuesday afternoon that Jack had gone looking for Willow to ask if she would babysit Michael so that he could take Angela out to a nice dinner that night. The man in question found Willow hunched over a light table with a skeleton spread out before her.

Willow hadn't heard him come in, nor had she noticed him stop beside her.

"Uh, Willow?" Hodgins asked hesitantly, he didn't want to scare her, but he needn't have worried, Willow barely reacted.

"Yes, Hodgins?"

"Are you busy tonight?" He asked when he didn't get yelled at for disturbing her.

"I have to work on my research for my dissertation. And grocery shop, I don't know what I'm going to eat for dinner tonight." She answered while examining the skeletons sternum intently. There was a slice in the sternum between where the second and third ribs would be attached.

Hodgins nodded. "Your anthropology dissertation?"

"No, I wrote that when I was sixteen. My psychology dissertation, I've been working on it for a few months now." Willow answered still looking at the slice. "Does this look like a knife wound to you?" She asked the man as she held the sternum out to him.

"Yes, I suppose it does, it would take a lot of force to cut the bone like that though. Did you say you already wrote your anthropology dissertation?" Hodgins squinted at the young woman before him.

"Yes and my archeology dissertation." Willow set the sternum back into its place and picked up the vertebrae that are located directly behind it to see if there were any corresponding wounds. Using the lighted magnifying glass to look closely at the vertebrae.

"Are you telling me you have not one, but _two_ doctorates? At nineteen years old?" Hodgins asked incredulously.

"That is in fact what I am telling you. I'm also working for a third. But I ran out of scholarship money so I needed a job." Willow nodded and then moved the magnifying glass and vertebrae so that Hodgins could look though. "Does that look like a small puncture? It seems to be lined up with the slice."

Hodgins stared at the girl for a full minute before he looked down at the bone. "Y-yeah I guess it could be." Hodgins shook his head. "Who all knows you already have doctorates? Everyone calls you Miss Payne or Willow."

"Dr. Saroyan and Wendell know. Wendell was an accident. They put my title on my locker at first. I wanted to have my impression first, and have people come to their own conclusion about me without knowing that I already have doctorates. It makes people uncomfortable when someone so much younger than them has one. Let alone has two." Willow answered then paused. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened a little. "You can't tell anyone!"

Hodgins eyed Willow. "You've been here four months; you've made your impression. You have to tell them."

"I know, but I…" Willow trailed off and looked away with a heaving sigh.

"The longer you wait, the harder it will be. You've already helped a lot! You've helped with every case that's come through here and you've given seven, eight of these people their identities back?" Hodgins argued.

"I know, it's just… how do I say it now?" Willow asked looking slightly desperate.

"Like this. Put Stabby away, and come with me."


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Hey there. Chapter two for this two shot is now up. Going to work on the next big story which is likely to be a lot longer than the first one I wrote. And while it is going to follow **_**The Memories in a Shallow Grave**_**, it is going to be quite different and Willow will have a larger part in the investigation. Anyway, this chapter is 1091 words long, which makes a total of 5519 words written for Willow in the last week, I think I've done pretty good. Anyway, here you are!**

**Chapter Two**

Willow carefully and slowly put away the remains while Jack stood watching. Both knew that the main team, Brennan, Booth, Cam, and Angela were all upstairs working on various things, as there wasn't currently a murder investigation going on. They also knew that a few of the interns were in the lab catching up on hours or school work. Both facts made Willow nervous, but she wasn't sure which was more nerve wracking.

On one hand, Brennan and Booth were fairly unconcerned about things like that, so long as people did their jobs, and Angela already liked Willow. But she didn't know how they would react to her lie, even if it was only a lie by omission, Brennan alone was a very honest person, and open about most things.

And on the other hand, she had grown fairly close to the interns as a group. The lot had let her into the fold without much struggle, and she was very worried about how they would react to the news that she was that much ahead of them. She would really hate to lose them as friends, even though the friendship was still tentative.

Hodgins shifted on his feet and crossed his arms over his chest. He was getting impatient. He knew she was stalling, he had seen her pack up remains before when he had given her a ride home from work, or even when she was called out to help examine fresher remains with Dr. Brennan. He cleared his throat and motioned for her to hurry up when she looked at him.

When Willow was finally done, Hodgins herded her up stairs and started calling everyone out of their offices and telling them to meet him in the small lounge area on the catwalk overlooking the lab. Once everyone had been notified of the request, Hodgins figuratively dragged Willow up to the lounge where the few interns who were in the lab had set up shop.

Willow just nodded in response to the greetings from the interns and each of the team members as the showed up. Once everyone was there, Jack stepped forwards.

"Hey, Willow has something to say." He announced brightly and shoved her in front of the group.

"Gee, thanks Jack, for that wonderful introduction." Willow replied with a slight glare to the man. With a sigh Willow began speaking after looking down at her nearly worn out sneakers. "It's not so much that I have something to say, its more that I should have said this already, but I didn't know how. Everyone has made assumptions about me and why I'm here, but none of you really know the truth. Well, almost none of you. Dr. Saroyan knows. And Jack does, now for the most part at least."

Willow took a deep breath and looked out at her co-workers. None looked upset at all, though most looked intrigued. Once her eyes were firmly glued on her shoes once again she spoke again. "I'm not an intern, which I have told all of you repeatedly. I'm not, because all of you are working on a doctorate in anthropology or involving anthropology and I'm not." Another deep breath and a glance; most were looking more confused than ever. "I'm not working on a doctorate in anthropology, because I already have one. I also have one in archeology."

Willow held her breath and didn't move. She waited for the dam to break and break it did. After only a few seconds all of the interns began speaking at once along with Angela. Brennan was asking Cam if she knew about this, and Booth was the only one silent, other than Jack who stood off to one side.

After a few moments of chaos, Jack walked up beside Willow. "Alright, alright! Cool it. One question at a time people. Booth, you're quiet, you first."

Booth shrugged. "Why now?"

Willow snorted. "Jack weaseled it out of me, and he would have told if I didn't."

"If you have your PhDs, why are you going as Miss instead of doctor?" Fisher asked next.

Willow tilted her head to one side and rolled her eyes. "Because I'm nineteen. I achieved them when I was sixteen and at sixteen when you ask someone to refer to you as Doctor, people tend to think you are lying. Or attention seeking."

Various heads nodded around the area.

"Why did you choose not to tell anyone here at the Jeffersonian, we would not have believed you to be lying." Dr. Brennan asked after a moment.

Willow heaved a breath before replying. "The few people who believed me about my PhDs came to some very harsh, very wrong conclusions about me before I even met them. They actually cost me two jobs. I wanted to make an impression of who I am, before I was judged on what I did."

There was a murmur of agreement amongst the masses and silence for a few minutes as each person thought over what had been said.

Brennan once again broke the silence. "Do your work as well as you have, and don't lie again and everything will be fine for me. Excuse me I have some reports to finish." The visibly pregnant woman stood and made her way away from the group, headed back in the direction of her office.

"I agree with Bones. See ya kid." Booth announced barely a second later and was up and off after Dr. Brennan.

Dr. Saroyan left next after announcing that as the boss, she already knew. Fisher barely shrugged and went back to whatever it was that he was working on, and Clark had a very "and I care why?" look on his face before he gathered his materials and scurried off to work somewhere else. Daisy began rambling to herself about how great it is that there was another anthropologist at the Jeffersonian but didn't seem to require another person for her conversation. This left, Wendell who had also gone back to his work, Angela, Jack and Willow in the lounge.

Angela seemed to gather herself and stood up to hug Willow. "Good job, sweetie. That had to be tough."

"I'm alright though. And I should have told you all earlier." Willow answered.

"So, Willow, or shall I say, Dr. Payne, are you free to babysit tonight?" Jack asked with a teasing tone to his voice.

"Only if you pick up dinner for me tonight, and take me grocery shopping tomorrow after work." Willow bargained.

"You have yourself a deal."


End file.
